Nebraska Furniture Mart Opening Spring 2015

Restaurants and hotels will begin to open around the huge Nebraska Furniture Mart next year.

Local restaurants, Mi Cocina, Cheddars and Hard Eight BBQ, have agreed to build in the 433 acre development in The Colony. Another restaurant concept from Los Angeles, Rock & Brews, will also be in the first phase, the company said Tuesday. The dining entertainment concept was co-founded by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS.

Nebraska Furniture Mart is calling its multiphase development Grandscape. The first phase is anchored by its 1.3 million square foot warehouse and 560,000-square-foot store. The warehouse is completed and will take five months to fill with furniture, electronics and appliances. The warehouse will have 500,000 items in it. The store is expected to be open in March or April.

About 60 trucks will unload merchandise nightly, said store manager Ed Lipsett. Nebraska Furniture Mart expects to have annual sales of $600 million. The store and warehouse will employ 2,000 people. About 1,200 have already been hired.

Two hotels will be built by Carrollton-based Atlantic Hotels Ltd. Construction on a Hampton Inn will start by the end of this year. A Homewood Suites is scheduled to open in 2016.

This first phase will be done by 2016. A second phase on more than 200 acres is also in the works, said Jeff Lind, president of Grandscape.

The Colony Mayor Joe McCourry said the city’s tax base will double with this project along Highway 121.